Ian Graeme Barbour (October 5, 1923 – December 24, 2013) was an American scholar on the
relationship between science and religion. According to the
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...
his mid-1960s ''
Issues in Science and Religion
''Issues in Science and Religion'' is a book by Ian Barbour. A biography provided by the John Templeton Foundation and published by Public Broadcasting Service, PBS online states this book "has been credited with literally creating the contempor ...
'' "has been credited with literally creating the contemporary field of science and religion."
In the citation nominating Barbour for the 1999
Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest ques ...
,
John B. Cobb wrote, "No contemporary has made a more original, deep and lasting contribution toward the needed integration of scientific and religious knowledge and values than Ian Barbour. With respect to the breadth of topics and fields brought into this integration, Barbour has no equal."
Biography
Barbour was born on October 5, 1923, in
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, China,
the second of three sons of an American
Episcopal mother (who was the daughter of the
obstetrician
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...
Robert Latou Dickinson) and a Scottish
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
father.
[ His family left China in 1931 and Barbour spent the remainder of his youth in the United States and England. A ]conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
, he served in the Civilian Public Service for three years during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
He received his Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree in physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
from Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
and his Master of Science
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...
degree in physics from Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
in 1946.[ In 1950, he received a ]Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
degree in physics from the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
,[ where he worked as a teaching assistant to ]Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project ...
.[ He earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1956 from Yale University's Divinity School.][
Barbour taught at ]Carleton College
Carleton College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1866, the main campus is between Northfield and the approximately Carleton ...
beginning with a joint appointment in the departments of physics and philosophy. He began teaching religion full-time in 1960, when the university established a religion department. In the 1970s, he co-founded of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at Carleton, which later became the Environment and Technology Studies program. He retired in 1986 as the Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor Emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
In some c ...
of Science, Technology and Society.
Barbour gave the Gifford lectures from 1989 to 1991 at the University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...
. These lectures led to the book ''Religion in an Age of Science''. He was awarded the Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest ques ...
in 1999[ for Progress in Religion in recognition of his efforts to create a dialogue between the worlds of science and religion.
Barbour was married to Deane Kern from 1947 until her death in 2011.] They had four children.
Barbour suffered a stroke on December 20, 2013, at his home in Northfield, Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
, and remained in a coma at Abbott Northwestern Hospital until his death four days later.
Philosophy and theology
In his efforts to link science and religion in ''Issues in Science and Religion
''Issues in Science and Religion'' is a book by Ian Barbour. A biography provided by the John Templeton Foundation and published by Public Broadcasting Service, PBS online states this book "has been credited with literally creating the contempor ...
'', Barbour coined the term '' critical realism''. This has been adopted by other scholars. He claimed the basic structure of religion is similar to that of science in some ways but also differs on some crucial points. They are part of the same spectrum in which both display subjective as well as objective features. The subjective include the theory on data, the resistance of comprehensive theories to falsification, and the absence of rules for choice among paradigms. Objective features include the presence of common data, evidence for or against a theory, and criteria which are not paradigm-dependent. The presence of subjective and objective features in both science and religion makes his thinking valuable and original. Barbour's arguments have been developed in significant and diverse ways by a variety of scholars, including Arthur Peacocke, John Polkinghorne, Sallie McFague, and Robert John Russell
Robert John Russell is founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS). He is also the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science in Residence at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). He has written and edit ...
. His subjective / objective approach is prominent in the evolving paradigm of religious naturalism.
Barbour considered critical realism an alternative to the competing interpretations of scientific theories: classical or naive realism, instrumentalism, and idealism. A critical realist perspective sees scientific theories yielding partial, revisable, abstract, but referential knowledge of the world that can be expressed through metaphors and models.
During the 1970s Barbour presented a program of interdisciplinary courses that dealt with ethical issues in the applications of science, exploring the social and environmental consequences of a variety of technologies. In 2000 in ''When Science Meets Religion'' (2000) he used a fourfold typology (Conflict, Independence, Dialogue, Integration) to relate religion and science that he had developed in his earlier writings. In his works, Barbour writes from a Christian perspective.
Barbour compared methods of inquiry in science and religion, and has explored the theological implications of the natural
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...
and social science
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s. He also has lectured widely on ethical issues in such fields as climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
, technology policy, energy, agriculture, computers, and cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without ...
.
American academic Forrest Clingerman ties Barbour to the religious naturalism movement via his theology of nature. His subjective/objective approach to religious is prominent in this evolving paradigm. Michael Dowd calls Barbour the grandfather of the evolutionary Christianity movement.Grandddaddy of Evolutionary Christianity
retrieved April 15, 2011
In his acceptance speech for the 1999 Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest ques ...
, Barbour spoke about the need to break down barriers, using cloning as an example of science's ability to say what is possible and of religion to reflect on what is desirable.
Bibliography
*''Christianity & the Scientists'' (1960)
*''Issues in Science and Religion
''Issues in Science and Religion'' is a book by Ian Barbour. A biography provided by the John Templeton Foundation and published by Public Broadcasting Service, PBS online states this book "has been credited with literally creating the contempor ...
'' (1966)
*''Science & Religion'' (1968)
*''Science & Secularity: The Ethics of Technology'' (1970)
Review of ''Science & Secularity'' with discussion of other books
from '' Journal of Religion''
*''Myths, Models and Paradigms'' (1974),
*''Religion in an Age of Science'' (1990),
*''Ethics in an Age of Technology'' (1993),
*Foreword in ''Religion & Science: History, Method, Dialogue'' (1996), W. Mark Richardson (ed.) and Wesley J. Wildman (ed.),
*''Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues'' (1997) (revised and expanded version of ''Religion in an Age of Science'')
*''When Science Meets Religion'', (2000),
''Nature, Human Nature, and God''
(2002),
See also
* List of scholars on the relationship between religion and science
References
Footnotes
Works cited
*
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Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
His biography
at PBS online with links to:
** May 28, 1999 Elizabeth Farnsworth interview
Templeton Prize press release
on Carleton College
Carleton College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1866, the main campus is between Northfield and the approximately Carleton ...
website.
Ian Barbour -Introduction to the Teleseries on Evolutionary Christianity, Followed by, “God and Evolution”
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbour, Ian G.
1923 births
2013 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American physicists
20th-century Protestants
21st-century American male writers
21st-century Protestants
American expatriates in China
American expatriates in England
American religion academics
Carleton College faculty
Christian scholars
Duke University alumni
Members of the Civilian Public Service
Members of the International Society for Science and Religion
American particle physicists
People from Northfield, Minnesota
Process theologians
Protestant writers
American philosophers of religion
American philosophers of technology
Religious naturalists
Swarthmore College alumni
Templeton Prize laureates
United Church of Christ members
University of Chicago alumni
Writers about religion and science
Yale Divinity School alumni
Yale University faculty
ISSR Fellows